


Us and Them

by shifty_cat



Category: Persona 5
Genre: F/M, Law Enforcement, Makoto Niijima Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-26
Updated: 2020-10-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:54:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27207700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shifty_cat/pseuds/shifty_cat
Summary: Makoto and Akira discuss a guest lecturer at her department.Makoto Niijima Week day 1: Law/Black & White
Relationships: Amamiya Ren/Niijima Makoto, Kurusu Akira/Niijima Makoto, Niijima Makoto/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 6
Kudos: 27
Collections: Makoto Niijima Week 2020





	Us and Them

**Author's Note:**

> and after all, we're only ordinary men
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKiLEgAzFDQ

"Tough day at work, Sergeant Niijima?"

Makoto shook her head on the pillow with an appreciative hum as Akira straddled her back and began kneading tension out of her shoulders. "Not exactly, just frustrating."

Akira leaned down to plant a soft kiss behind her ear. "You know you don't need to shoulder the burden on your own."

She smiled and nodded. "Fair enough. Well, we had a guest lecturer at our department today, some American ex-military 'police safety' expert, and honestly what he said was quite disturbing. His central thesis was that law enforcement officers need to develop a 'battlefield psychology' that enables them to kill without the normal human inhibition against violence."

Akira shook his head with a grunt. "Huh, sounds like some Fascist Bullshit to me."

Despite the seriousness of the conversation, Makoto couldn't help but giggle a bit at his bluntness. "Exactly. His core metaphor was that law enforcement are 'sheepdogs', citizens are 'sheep', and criminals are 'wolves'. The sheep may resent and distrust the sheepdogs because they look like wolves, and the wolves may be disguised in 'sheep's clothing', as it were. Because 'wolves' could be anywhere, the 'sheepdogs' need to be ready to use lethal force, regardless of what the 'sheep' think. A little softer, please."

Akira loosened his grip on her shoulders. "It's all a process of dehumanization. People do this kind of shit with criminals all the time. They're monsters, they're 'wolves', they broke the law and anything that happens to them is justified. They don't deserve sympathy. Anything to avoid thinking about the fact that criminals are human, because the idea of them as part of our system instead of an outside Other leads to uncomfortable questions like 'what kind of circumstances could have led someone into that life?'"

Makoto hummed her agreement. "Which in turn leads to the expensive and logistically challenging questions of how we can establish a more Just and equitable society, in which people won't need to turn to crime to survive. While I ensure that the officers under my command are capable and prepared to defend themselves when necessary, I make it clear that our role is to bring criminals in to face Justice, and to prevent them from causing further harm to others, not to mete out punishment as we see fit."

She furrowed her brow with a serious frown. "I'll admit the temptation is strong in the case of especially heinous crimes, and I wouldn't hesitate to call Kamoshida a monster, but he was a specifically human monster, and viewing him as something other than human abdicates responsibility for the systems that enabled his predations. He wasn't some aberration acting outside the system, he took advantage of Kobayakawa caring more about Shujin's reputation than students' safety. Treating him as some lone wolf abomination ignores the need to reform the structures and culture that produced him."

Akira smiled and leaned down to kiss the back of her neck. "You're sure you aren't interested in a career in politics?"

She laughed and shook her head. "Not for all the Buchimaru-kun in Japan. I'll leave that to you. I don't know how you stand it."

He contemplated for a moment. "'He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.'"

She turned her head to glance up at him. "Samuel Johnson?"

He nodded grimly. "Mhm. I think it goes the other way too. Seeing truly evil people as beasts relieves us of the uncomfortable recognition that humans are capable of that kind of evil."

He tapped her shoulder and dismounted her back, sitting beside her as she rolled over and pulling her feet up onto his lap to begin giving them a rub. "Anyway, it isn't even how sheepdogs actually work. I remember a story from group psych about a shepherd in... somewhere in Africa, I think. Each morning he let the sheep graze with the dog guiding them, and in the evening they came back. One evening they didn't, and he went to look for them. Turns out the dog had been injured, and the sheep had surrounded it to protect it, because it was one of them, part of the flock, not some outside authority they begrudgingly obeyed."

Makoto nodded with a relaxed hum at his gentle attentions on her feet. "That's the type of attitude I try to instill in my men. We're there to protect people from injustice, not punish them for disobedience. In order for us to succeed, we need the cooperation and trust of citizens. I've certainly met a few officers in other departments who seemed to be in it for the authority and power, but I've made it very clear that isn't how we do it in mine."

Akira smiled and lifted her foot to plant a kiss on her ankle. "That's one of the many reasons why I love you, my Fist of Justice."

She giggled at the tickle of his lips, then tapped a calculating finger to her chin. "I suppose that I can understand where the paranoia comes in, in a country that has no rational gun control. I've trained extensively to be able to bring down a suspect without harming them, but when anyone could have access to an AR-15 and military grade body armor, every encounter could potentially be lethal, leading officers to behave as though they were in battle. Honestly, though, that all seems like a self-inflicted wound, and I really don't understand why they don't simply implement better controls on arms sales."

Akira leaned back on the couch with an exhalation of extreme exasperation that indicated this was not his first time dealing with this problem. "So, the U.S. government is basically owned by lobbyists and propagandists for arms manufacturers. Real gun control laws would cut into their profits, so that won't happen, even though the majority of people there want it. Of course, this makes cops' jobs more dangerous (nothing compared to logging or roofing, though), but they don't really give a shit about cops, they care about the bottom line, and they can leverage that fear into even more arms sales, on the public yen, by increasingly militarizing the police. 'Afraid of AR-15s? Have a fucking tank!'"

Makoto frowned disdainfully at the idea of such a callous and blatantly self-interested position. "The domestic policy side of the Military-Industrial Complex. But America is a democracy. Surely the people could vote out the politicians in the pocket of arms manufacturers, if they're acting so clearly against public interests."

Akira rolled his eyes with a sigh and did a sorcerous finger wiggle at her. "That's where the ~*magic of propaganda*~ comes in. Make it a cultural issue instead of a public safety issue. 'These guns are _my identity_ and no _goddamn government_ is gonna take them away from me!' Keep them focused on how important guns are to _them_ , so they don't focus on the harm and the problems the system causes. And train them to accept increasingly extreme police brutality as 'protecting Law and Order'."

Makoto lay back with a frustrated groan. "I'd like, for once, to hear the words 'Law and Order' used in a context that isn't justifying Authoritarianism."

Akira shrugged. "It is what it is. Of course, when you've got baked into the system an 'Out' group community, who have very good reason to be distrustful of the police, based both on historically discriminatory policies and present brutality, you have the Other. They don't distrust the 'sheepdogs' because they 'look like wolves', they distrust them because they've _acted like wolves_. And when they stand up and demand that their lives be treated as having value, they become the designated enemy of Order who 'justify' perpetually escalating crackdowns, leading to..."

He didn't need to finish the sentence. Both of them had been transfixed, horrified for the past months by the scenes on the news of American police attacking protestors with tear gas, rubber bullets, and other 'less lethal' weapons. Makoto shook her head with a huff and a determined glare. "If I'm ever told to attack demonstrators, I'll order my men to stand down and immediately file an official complaint. If it becomes department policy, my resignation will be on the chief's desk before he can say 'justified use of force'. I serve Justice, and I refuse to become a tool of injustice."

Akira smiled affectionately and leaned over to share a comfortable kiss. "And you know there's a good chance I'll be in there with the protestors."

Makoto brought up a hand to lightly cup his cheek with a weighty smile. "If it comes to that, we both will be."

**Author's Note:**

> I've been thinking about doing something like this for months now, but the Makoto Week prompt kind of forced my hand. Based in large part on this video essay by That Dang Dad https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ3SSNJIQ2k
> 
> It should go without saying, but Black Lives Matter. Also, VOTE!


End file.
